Science & Tech

At the elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 anticipated by around 2050, crops that provide a large share of the global population with most of its dietary zinc and iron will have significantly reduced concentrations of those nutrients, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health.

Harvard’s Wyss Institute researchers find that a fully degradable bioplastic isolated from shrimp shells could provide a solution to planet-clogging plastics.

Aging, health care, and the challenges facing the globe’s women were the focus of a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Why do we care for our dead? The answer is not religion, but a primordial set of ethical obligations played out over thousands of years across countless cultures, an author says.

Time magazine has named John Kovac to the 2014 Time 100, its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Since it was founded in 2006 by Professor Jody Freeman, Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law and Policy Program has become the leader in its field, with renowned faculty, innovative courses, a lauded clinical program that gives students hands-on training in real cases. The program’s new Policy Initiative provides nonpartisan legal analysis and policy advice to federal and state agencies.

Harvard researchers have succeeded in creating quantum switches that can be turned on and off using a single photon, an achievement that could pave the way for the creation of highly secure quantum networks.

A new course on how oceans are “urbanizing” underscores a decade-long Harvard theme: that cities have to cope with the multiple challenges of water — of there being too much or too little.

Professor Michael McCormick will lead a project aimed at constructing the most detailed historical record yet of European climate.

After analyzing tree rings — and 400 years of history — researchers from Harvard Forest have indicated ways in which seemingly stable forests could abruptly change over the next century in the wake of climate change and drought.

A team of scientists led by Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics Amir Yacoby has developed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system that can produce nanoscale images, and may one day allow researchers to peer into the atomic structure of individual molecules.

Faculty, staff, and students gathered from around campus for a discussion about social media at Harvard. While civil in tone, the exchange began with participants throwing Marlon Kuzmick’s softball question right back at him.

Harvard University has made significant progress in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released by President Drew Faust, who announced the next steps that the institution will take to meet its goal of cutting emissions 30 percent by 2016.

University leaders gathered at the Science Center to celebrate an update of the Harvard Mark I exhibit.

In addition to conducting research and teaching about climate, energy, and the environment, Harvard faculty members also serve as expert advisers to policymakers, putting their science to work to improve laws and regulations and to foster understanding between the worlds of government and academics.

Experts came together at Radcliffe to peer into the future of digital library collections.

Two teams of students at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design provided a close look — part celebration, part cerebration — at two house designs that won international competitions.

Changes in design and behavior are key to making labs more energy-efficient, said experts at a Harvard symposium.

A new course on how to handle big data designed by Assistant Statistics Professor Luke Bornn immerses students in a competitive environment, driven by peer learning, to understand how to handle the massive data sets common in real-world problems.

In breakthrough, astronomers find evidence of speedy ‘cosmic inflation’ of universe.

Professor M. Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon wants to bring the uncertainty back to forecasting, he said in a Harvard talk.

Former MIT President Susan Hockfield discussed the power of technology’s ongoing convergence during a session at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.

Scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have discovered a way to build self-assembling cages made of DNA. The cages are the largest stand-alone DNA structures made to date, and one day may be able to deliver drugs or house tiny bioreactors or photonic devices inside the human body.

MIT Professor Rosalind Picard and a team of researchers at the MIT Media Lab have created a wristband that can gauge a person’s emotional response to stimuli or situations by tapping skin conductance, an indicator of the state of the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s flight-or-fight response by ramping up responses like heart rate and blood pressure.

Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication Anthony Leiserowitz spoke at a Harvard Kennedy School seminar called “Climate Change in the American Mind.”

Nobel laureate Michael Spence offered some growth projections for China in a talk at the Science Center.

The World Wide Web turns 25 this week, so the Gazette sat down with Scott Bradner, a senior technology consultant with the University who has been involved with the Internet since the early days. Bradner says government regulation is the greatest threat looming over the Net, and its spread around the world via smartphones its greatest promise.

A team of Harvard researchers has demonstrated that the bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris can use natural conductivity to pull electrons from minerals located remotely in soil and sediment while remaining at the surface, where it absorbs the sunlight needed to produce energy.

Female academics are less likely to collaborate across rank, a Harvard study found.

A symposium on data visualization brought together experts from campus and beyond to show how technology in the arts, sciences, and humanities is helping people think in new ways.